System and method for providing backup service continuity using a virtual backup service path

ABSTRACT

Provided are a system and method for using a plurality of virtual backup service paths to dynamically switch between storage devices based on a plurality of scenarios. In one example multiple backup service groups are defined. Multiple scenarios that each reference at least one virtual backup service path are also defined. Each virtual backup service path may be defined by at least one network address identifying a storage device. One of the scenarios is selected based on a service level of one or more storage devices, and the virtual backup service path identified by the selected scenario is chosen as a backup destination for at least one of the service groups.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/864,776, filed Jun. 9, 2004, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND

In a semiconductor manufacturing business, such as a semiconductorfoundry business, information technology (IT) services provide cohesionand support both internally and externally. For example, IT services ina foundry business may provide operations to support a network ofprocessing equipment, computing devices, robotics, customers, andmanufacturing equipment. One operation performed by IT services is thestorage and retrieval of information associated with customers and theirproducts, as well as information associated with the various devicesconnected to the network. Such information is often duplicated bybacking the information up to networked storage devices. However,difficulties may arise when backing up such information if the storagedevice fails or is inaccessible due to maintenance or other concerns.When this occurs, the backup operation may be halted or delayed untilthe problem is rectified. Such interruptions in the backup process mayresult in a loss of productivity, as well as a loss of customerinformation.

Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method that addresses theabove discussed issues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system that uses virtual paths to switchbetween multiple storage devices based on a plurality of scenarios.

FIG. 2 illustrates the system of FIG. 1 after a switch in storagedevices has occurred.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an exemplary method that may be executedwithin the system of FIG. 1 to enable dynamic switching from adesignated storage device to one or more alternate storage devices.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary method that may be executedwithin the system of FIG. 1 to switch between storage devices.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary system that may monitor storage deviceresources to maintain a backup table of virtual paths.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an exemplary method that may be executedwithin the system of FIG. 5 to update the backup table.

FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary integrated circuitfabrication system within which the systems of FIGS. 1 and 5 may beimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method fortransferring information between computing entities of a semiconductorproduct manufacturing facility and, more specifically, to using virtualpaths to provide backup service continuity. It is to be understood thatthe following disclosure provides many different embodiments, orexamples, for implementing different features of the disclosure.Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below tosimplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examplesand are not intended to be limiting. In addition, the present disclosuremay repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples.This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and doesnot in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodimentsand/or configurations discussed.

Referring to FIG. 1, in one embodiment, an information transfer system100 (e.g., a backup system) enables information to be duplicated andstored (e.g., backed up) even when a designated storage device fails. Aswill be described later in greater detail, the information transfersystem 100 provides for automatically and dynamically selectingalternate storage devices for backup purposes without needing clientside changes when one or more designated storage devices fails or isotherwise inaccessible (e.g., has been taken offline for maintenancepurposes, has no additional capacity, etc.).

The information transfer system 100 includes a plurality of servicegroups 102, 104, 106, . . . . M that are sources of information, aplurality of storage devices 110, 112, 114, . . . , N that are storagedestinations for information, a server 120 that maintains networkidentifiers (e.g., addresses) of at least some of the storage devices110-M, a name table 122 containing at least one backup device name thatis associated with the network identifier of one of the storage devices110-M, and one or more predefined scenarios 124. The name table 122 andscenarios 124 may be maintained on the server 120 or may be maintainedelsewhere.

The service group(s) 102-M may each contain one or more clients 108. Theclients 108 may include desktop computing devices, portable and handheld computing devices (e.g., laptop computers, cellular telephones,personal digital assistants, etc.), and/or other computing devices, aswell as computing devices integrated into manufacturing equipment. It isunderstood that these are only examples and that the clients 108 mayinclude any device containing data that may access the informationtransfer system 100 either directly or indirectly. The clients 108 maystore information associated with customers and their products, processinstructions, process logs, and/or other operational instructions, andmay communicate with other entities through wired or wirelessconnections. Wired connections may include local area network (LAN),wide area network (WAN), Ethernet, and/or other direct wire connectionsand protocols, while wireless connections may include BlueTooth®,802.11b, 802.11g, and/or other wireless communication protocols.

The clients 108 may be assigned to one of the service groups 102-M,although it is understood that a client itself may represent a servicegroup. The service groups 102-M may represent, for example, a cluster oftools, a number of customers assigned to a particular fabricationfacility, an engineering section, a work group operation section, or anyother grouping that is desirable. In some embodiments, each servicegroup may be further divided into subgroups. For example, there may be amanufacturing group with a product design subgroup, a manufacturingprocess subgroup, an administration subgroup, an information technologysubgroup, and/or other subgroups.

In the present example, the service groups 102-M represent customers andare assigned priority levels, with the service group 102 having thehighest priority (e.g., Priority 1), the service group 104 having thesecond highest priority (e.g., Priority 2), the service group 106 havingthe third highest priority (e.g., Priority 3), and the service group Mhaving the lowest priority (e.g., Priority M). It is understood thatmultiple service groups may be assigned the same level of priority. Eachservice group (or priority level in the present example) may be assigneda backup name (e.g., tsm-p1 for priority level 1; tsm-p2 for prioritylevel 2; tsm-p3 for priority level 3, etc.) that may be used by theservice group to request an identity the storage device that isdesignated for storing information coming from that service group.

The storage devices 110-N may each include one or more virtual orphysical storage devices able to store information. Each storage devicemay have a single memory or may include multiple memories, which may besegmented or distributed. Each storage device may have a single memoryor may include multiple memories, which may be segmented or distributed.It is understood that the term memory includes any medium capable ofstoring data, including magnetic and optical media. Accordingly, astorage device may be a tape, disk, compact disk, hard drive, flashmemory card, or any other type of magnetic and/or optical storage, ormay be a storage device based on other technologies. In addition, theterm storage device, as used in the present disclosure, may include anyneeded hardware/software (e.g., a tape drive able to write to a magnetictape). Each storage device may be associated with a service level, whichmay take into account such factors as the storage device's availability,capacity, performance, and/or other features. Furthermore, each storagedevice may include one or more media access control (MAC) addressesassociated with one or more network interface card (NICs). If a storagedevice has multiple NICs, it is understood that inbound and outboundtraffic may be balanced among the NICs using a traffic balancing module.

The name server 120, in conjunction with the name table 122, may beresponsible for responding to requests from the service groups (ordevices within the service groups) for the network identifier associatedwith the relevant backup name. In the present example, the server 120 isa Domain Name Server (DNS) and the network identifiers are InternetProtocol (IP) addresses. As illustrated, each storage device 110-N isassociated with a particular IP address. Accordingly, the DNS server 120maintains a list of the IP addresses of each of the storage devices110-N. Furthermore, the DNS server 120 maintains the name table 122,which associates each backup name with one or more of the IP addresses,as represented below in Table 1. TABLE 1 DNS Name IP address tsm-p110.42.101.101 tsm-p2 10.42.101.101 tsm-p3 10.42.101.101

In the present embodiment, as illustrated by Table 1, the storage device112 (having the IP address 10.42.101.101) is designated as the storagedevice for priority levels 1-3 (tsm-p1, tsm-p2, and tsm-p3,respectively). Accordingly, as illustrated in FIG. 1, information fromeach of the service groups 102, 104, 106 (e.g., service groupsassociated with priority levels 1-3) will be stored within the storagedevice 112.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the storage device 112 may be inaccessible(e.g., denoted as not usable by the service level) when a backup is tooccur. The inaccessibility may be due to lack of capacity, to failure,to being taken offline for maintenance, or for other reasons. Thisinaccessibility means that Table 1 (representing the name table 122)provides unusable addresses for current data storage purposes.

To resolve this problem, the DNS server 120 may alter the name table 122using one of the predefined scenarios 124. For example, the scenario maydefine that, if the storage device 112 is unavailable, traffic destinedto the storage device 112 should be rerouted. The rerouting may bepredetermined (e.g., reroute all traffic to the storage device 110), itmay be dynamically determined (e.g., reroute all traffic to the storagedevice having the least load or the highest available capacity) or itmay be a combination of predetermined and dynamically determinedcriteria (e.g., split the traffic into two portions based on priorityand route each portion to the two storage devices having the mostavailable bandwidth). Furthermore, in some embodiments, the servicegroups may be queued based on priority level or other criteria (e.g.,time elapsed since previous backup) to ensure that certain servicegroups are backed up before other service groups.

It is understood that many different scenarios may be constructed, witheach scenario dealing with different variations of a similar occurrence.For example, a single scenario may be constructed to deal with theinaccessibility of the storage device 112, or multiple scenarios may beconstructed based on the inaccessibility of the storage device 112 and acombination of one or more other factors, such as the number or priorityof service groups attempting to access the storage device 112 when theinaccessibility occurs. An exemplary set of four scenarios is providedin Table 2 (below). TABLE 2 tsm-p1 tsm-p2 tsm-p3 tsm-p1 tsm-p2 tsm-p3 SD1 SD 2 SD 3 default default default next next next Scenario 1 A A U SD 2SD 2 SD 2 N/A N/A N/A Scenario 2 A U A SD 2 SD 2 SD 2 SD 1 SD 3 SD 3Scenario 3 U A A SD 2 SD 2 SD 2 N/A N/A N/A Scenario 4 A U U SD 2 SD 2SD 2 SD 1 SD 1 SD 1

As illustrated in Table 2, scenario 1 covers the situation where storagedevices 1 and 2 (e.g., the storage devices 110 and 112) are availableand storage device 3 (e.g., the storage device 114) is unavailable. Thedefault storage device for each priority level tsm-p1, tsm-p2, andtsm-p3 is storage device 2 (the storage device 112). The virtual pathsto be used in each scenario may be the default paths (as shown inscenario 1) or may be alternate paths (as shown in scenarios 2 and 4)that are defined in the columns entitled “tsm-p1 next”, “tsm-p2 next”,and “tsm-p3 next”. It is understood that Table 2 may contain addressesof the storage devices, as well as additional or alternate criteria.Furthermore, Table 2 may be implemented in many different ways, ratherthan as an actual table. In some embodiments, the name table 122 may becombined with the scenarios 124.

In the present example, as illustrated in Table 3 (below), the DNSserver 120 alters the name table 122 to route the priority 1 servicegroup (e.g., the service group 102) to the storage device 110, and thepriority 2 and 3 service groups (e.g., the service groups 104, 106) tothe storage device 114. This corresponds to scenario 2 of Table 2. TABLE3 DNS Name IP address tsm-p1 10.40.15.101 tsm-p2 10.48.15.31 tsm-p310.48.15.31

Accordingly, each of the service groups 102-106 may backup theinformation without requiring a change to the service group or theclients within the service group. It is understood that alternaterouting may be provided. For example, the service groups 102, 104, 106may be routed to a single storage device or each service group may berouted to a separate storage device.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a method 150 may be executed within theinformation transfer system 100 of FIGS. 1 and 2 to store information toan alternate storage device when a designated storage device isinaccessible (e.g., denoted as not usable by the associated servicelevel). As described with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, each of thedesignated and alternate storage devices may be identified on a networkby a network identifier (e.g., a network address or alias).

In step 152, multiple backup service groups may be defined. Aspreviously described, each backup service group may include one or moredevices that contain information that needs to be backed up. In step154, a plurality of scenarios may be defined. Each scenario mayreference at least one virtual backup service path that may be definedby at least one network address identifying a storage device. It isunderstood that multiple network addresses may form a virtual servicepath in some examples. In step 156, a determination may be made as towhich scenario is applicable based on the service level associated witheach of the storage devices. As previously described, the service levelmay include, for example, one or more of a capacity, a performancelevel, or an availability of a respective storage device. For example,if a service level associated with one of the storage devices indicatesthat the storage device is not available, then the scenario may beselected based on the unavailability of that particular storage device.In step 158, the virtual backup service path identified by theapplicable scenario may be selected. This provides the network addressassociated with the storage device that is to be used to store theinformation. Information from at least one of the backup service groupsmay then be stored using the selected virtual backup service path.

In some embodiments, the method 150 may include assigning a prioritylevel to at least some of the backup service groups as previouslydescribed. This enables the storage of information from the backupservice groups to be prioritized, so information from backup servicegroups with a higher priority level may be stored before informationfrom backup service groups with a lower priority level.

It is understood that one or both of the designated storage devices mayinclude multiple storage devices. Furthermore, the scenario may switchdifferent backup service groups to different alternate storage devices,even if the backup service groups were assigned to the same designatedstorage device. In addition, a backup service group may be subdividedand the subdivisions may be switched to different storage devices. Forexample, different clients within the backup service group may beassigned to different alternate storage devices. Alternatively orsimultaneously, a first alternate storage device may be used until itreaches its storage capacity, and then a second alternate storage devicemay be used. Accordingly, a scenario may incorporate a variety ofdifferent relationships between a backup service group and one or morestorage devices.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a method 170 may be executed within theinformation transfer system 100 of FIGS. 1 and 2 to dynamically switchto an alternate storage device when a designated storage device is notaccessible. As described with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, each of thedesignated and alternate storage devices may be identified on a networkby a network identifier (e.g., a network address or alias).

In step 172, a request may be received from a service group having abackup name. In the present example, the network identifier of thedesignated storage device is currently assigned to the backup name. Instep 174, a determination may be made as to whether the designatedstorage device can be used to receive data based on the service level ofthe designated storage device. The service level may include, forexample, a capacity, a performance level, and/or an availability of thedesignated storage device. In step 176, the network identifier of analternate storage device is assigned to the backup name if thedesignated storage device is not available to receive data. Aspreviously described, the designated storage device may be unavailabledue to failure, maintenance, or other issues. In step 178, a response tothe request may be sent with the first network identifier if the firstnetwork identifier is currently assigned to the backup name, or with thesecond network identifier if the second network identifier is currentlyassigned to the backup name.

It is understood that, before assigning the network identifier of thealternate storage device to the backup name, an accessibility of thealternate storage device may be determined using the alternate storagedevice's service level. If it is inaccessible, another storage devicemay be selected, checked for availability, etc. In some embodiments, themethod 170 may include storing the data on either the designated oralternate storage device based on the network identifier currentlyassigned to the backup name. In other embodiments, the method 170 mayinclude assigning a priority level to the service group. If otherservice groups are also requesting data storage and there areinsufficient storage devices, then the priority level may be used todetermine an order in which data from the service groups is stored. Thepriority level may also be used to determine the storage device(s) onwhich a service group's data is to be stored.

Referring now to FIG. 5, in another embodiment, an information transfersystem 200 may provide for monitoring storage devices and updating atable indicating which storage device a particular service group shoulduse for backup purposes. This may be accomplished using virtual backupservice paths to dynamically switch between storage devices withoutneeding to make changes to the service group.

The information transfer system 200 includes a plurality of servicegroups 202, 204, 206, . . . . M that are sources of information(illustrated as a service group 201 for purposes of convenience), aplurality of storage devices 210, 212, 214, . . . , N that are storagedestinations for information (illustrated as a storage device group 216for purposes of convenience), and a monitor module 220 that includes aresource engine 222, a resource monitor 224, a backup table (or tables)226 containing at least one backup device name that is associated with anetwork identifier of one of the storage devices 210-M, one or morepredefined scenarios 228, and a graphical user interface (GUI) 230.Although illustrated as a single resource module 220, it is understoodthat the resource engine 222, resource monitor 224, backup table 226,scenarios 228, and GUI 230 may be distributed.

In some embodiments, the information transfer system 200 may include aname server (not shown), such as the name server 120 of FIG. 1. The nameserver may enable the resource engine 222 to receive and respond torequests from the service groups 202-M for network identifiersidentifying a storage device for backup. In other embodiments, theresource module 220 may include instructions enabling the resourcemodule to receive and respond to such requests, or the resource module220 may be part of such a server.

The service group(s) 202-M may each contain one or more clients 208. Theclients 208 may include desktop computing devices, portable and handheld computing devices (e.g., laptop computers, cellular telephones,personal digital assistants, etc.), and/or other computing devices, aswell as computing devices integrated into manufacturing equipment. It isunderstood that these are only examples and that the clients 208 mayinclude any device containing data that may access the informationtransfer system 200 either directly or indirectly. The clients 208 maystore process instructions, process logs, and/or other operationalinstructions, and may communicate with other entities through wired orwireless connections. Wired connections may include LAN, WAN, Ethernet,and/or other direct wire connections and protocols, while wirelessconnections may include BlueTooth®, 802.11b, 802.11g, and/or otherwireless communication protocols.

The clients 208 may be assigned to one of the service groups 202-M,although it is understood that a client itself may represent a servicegroup. The service groups 202-M may represent, for example, a cluster oftools, a number of customers assigned to a particular fabricationfacility, an engineering section, a work group operation section, or anyother grouping that is desirable. In some embodiments, each servicegroup may be further divided into subgroups. For example, there may be amanufacturing group with a product design subgroup, a manufacturingprocess subgroup, an administration subgroup, an information technologysubgroup, and/or other subgroups. The service groups 202-M may beassigned priority levels, as described with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2.Furthermore, each service group may be assigned a backup name that maybe used by the service group to request an identity of the storagedevice that is designated for storing information coming from thatservice group.

The storage devices 210-N may each include one or more virtual orphysical storage devices able to store information. Each storage devicemay have a single memory or may include multiple memories, which may besegmented or distributed. It is understood that the term memory includesany medium capable of storing data, including magnetic and opticalmedia. Accordingly, a storage device may be a tape, disk, compact disk,hard drive, flash memory card, or any other type of magnetic and/oroptical storage, or may be a storage device based on other technologies.In addition, each storage device may be associated with a service level,which may take into account such factors as the storage device'savailability, capacity, performance, and/or other features. Furthermore,each storage device may include one or more MAC addresses associatedwith one or more NICs. If a storage device has multiple NICs, it isunderstood that inbound and outbound traffic may be balanced among theNICs using a traffic balancing module.

As described above, the resource module 220 includes the resource engine222, the resource monitor 224, the backup table 226, the scenarios 228,and the GUI 230. The resource monitor 224 is responsible for monitoringthe storage devices 210-N. Such monitoring may include monitoring theavailability of each storage device, monitoring an available capacity ofeach storage device, and similar operations. The resource monitor 224may supply the resource engine 222 with the monitoring data.

The backup table 226 associates the backup name of each service group202-M with an address or other identifier of at least one storage device210-N. In some examples, the backup table 226 may include a status ofeach storage device. The status may be based on the service level (e.g.,availability, performance, and capacity) of each storage device.However, in the present example, such a status need not be explicitlyrecorded as the address or other identifier may be changed based on thestatus. The backup table 226 may be updated by the resource engine 222based on the information supplied by the resource monitor 224 and thescenarios 228. In some examples, the backup table 226 may also bealtered by a system administrator and/or a user via the GUI 230. Theresource engine 222 may keep all change records of backup table 226.When any service group 202-M needs to retrieve previous backup data, theresource engine 222 informs them of the associated network identifier oraddress by looking up a restore timestamp and change history in thebackup table 226.

The scenarios 228 may be used by the resource engine 222 to determinewhich of a plurality of virtual service paths should be used based, atleast in part, on the information provided by the resource monitor 224.For example, a scenario may define that, if the storage device 212 isunavailable or has no additional capacity, traffic destined for thestorage device 212 should be rerouted. The rerouting may bepredetermined (e.g., reroute all traffic to the storage device 210), itmay be dynamically determined (e.g., reroute all traffic to the storagedevice having the least load) or it may be a combination ofpredetermined and dynamically criteria (e.g., split the traffic into twoportions based on priority and route each portion to the two storagedevices having the most available bandwidth). Furthermore, in someembodiments, the service groups may be queued based on priority level orother criteria (e.g., time elapsed since previous backup) to ensure thatcertain service groups are backed up before other service groups.

It is understood that many different scenarios may be constructed, witheach scenario dealing with different variations of a similar occurrence.For example, a single scenario may be constructed to deal with theunavailability of the storage device 212, or multiple scenarios may beconstructed based on the unavailability of the storage device 212 and acombination of one or more other factors, such as the number or priorityof service groups attempting to access the storage device 212 when theunavailability occurs.

The GUI 230 may be used to manually set virtual backup paths, servicegroup backup names, etc., and these changes may be implemented by theresource engine 222.

Referring now to FIG. 6 and with continued reference to FIG. 5, a method240 may be used to monitor the status of one or more storage devices andmodify a virtual backup service path based on the status. In step 242,one or more of the storage devices 210-N may be monitored by theresource monitor 224 to determine the status of each storage device. Itis noted that, in some embodiments, the resource monitor 224 may monitoronly the status of storage devices listed in the backup table 226 (as inthe present example), while in other embodiments, the resource monitor224 may monitor the status of all or a predefined group of storagedevices.

In step 244, a determination is made as to whether a status change hasoccurred in any of the monitored storage devices. The status change mayindicate that the storage device is unavailable due to failure ormaintenance purposes, or it may indicate that the storage device hasexhausted a resource such as available capacity. If no status change hasoccurred, the method 240 returns to step 242. However, if a statuschange has occurred, the method 240 continues to step 246, where ascenario is selected from the predefined scenarios based on the statuschange. For example, if the storage device 212 is unavailable and theother storage engines are available, the resource engine 222 may selecta scenario that accounts for this situation. In step 248, the resourceengine 222 may update the backup table 226 based on the selectedscenario. This may include updating an address or other identifier thatis associated with a backup name to ensure that the address identifiesan available storage device 210-N. Using the identifier, one of theservice groups 202-M may store data directly to one or more of thestorage devices 210-N, as indicated by the line 228.

Referring now to FIG. 7, a virtual IC fabrication system (a “virtualfab”) 300 provides an exemplary environment within which the informationtransfers systems 100 and 200 (FIGS. 1 and 5, respectively) may beimplemented. The virtual fab 300 includes a plurality of entitiesrepresented by one or more internal entities 302 and one or moreexternal entities 304 that are connected by a communications network306. The network 306 may be a single network or may be a variety ofdifferent networks, such as an intranet and the Internet, and mayinclude both wireline and wireless communication channels.

Each of the entities 302, 304 may include one or more computing devicessuch as personal computers, personal digital assistants, pagers,cellular telephones, and the like. For the sake of example, the internalentity 302 is expanded to show a central processing unit (CPU) 308, amemory unit 310, an input/output (I/O) device 312, and an externalinterface 314. The external interface may be, for example, a modem, awireless transceiver, and/or one or more network interface cards (NICs).The components 308-314 are interconnected by a bus system 316. It isunderstood that the internal entity 302 may be differently configuredand that each of the listed components may actually represent severaldifferent components. For example, the CPU 308 may actually represent amulti-processor or a distributed processing system; the memory unit 224may include different levels of cache memory, main memory, hard disks,and remote storage locations; and the I/O device 312 may includemonitors, keyboards, and the like.

The internal entity 302 may be connected to the communications network306 through a wireless or wired link 318, and/or through an intermediatenetwork 320, which may be further connected to the communicationsnetwork. The intermediate network 320 may be, for example, a completenetwork or a subnet of a local area network, a company wide intranet,and/or the Internet. The internal entity 302 may be identified on one orboth of the networks 306, 320 by an address or a combination ofaddresses, such as a MAC address associated with the network interface314 and an IP address. Because the internal entity 202 may be connectedto the intermediate network 320, certain components may, at times, beshared with other internal entities. Therefore, a wide range offlexibility is anticipated in the configuration of the internal entity302. Furthermore, it is understood that, in some implementations, aserver 322 may be provided to support multiple internal entities 302. Inother implementations, a combination of one or more servers andcomputers may together represent a single entity.

In the present example, the internal entities 302 represents thoseentities that are directly responsible for producing the end product,such as a wafer or individually tested IC devices. Examples of internalentities 302 include an engineer, customer service personnel, anautomated system process, a design or fabrication facility andfab-related facilities such as raw-materials, shipping, assembly ortest. Examples of external entities 304 include a customer, a designprovider, and other facilities that are not directly associated or underthe control of the fab. In addition, additional fabs and/or virtual fabscan be included with the internal or external entities. Each entity mayinteract with other entities and may provide services to and/or receiveservices from the other entities.

It is understood that the entities 302, 304 may be concentrated at asingle location or may be distributed, and that some entities may beincorporated into other entities. In addition, each entity 302, 304 maybe associated with system identification information that allows accessto information within the system to be controlled based upon authoritylevels associated with each entities identification information.

The virtual fab 300 enables interaction among the entities 302, 304 forpurposes related to IC manufacturing, as well as the provision ofservices. In the present example, IC manufacturing can include one ormore of the following steps:

receiving or modifying a customer's IC order of price, delivery, and/orquantity;

receiving or modifying an IC design;

receiving or modifying a process flow;

receiving or modifying a circuit design;

receiving or modifying a mask change;

receiving or modifying testing parameters;

receiving or modifying assembly parameters; and

receiving or modifying shipping of the ICs.

One or more of the services provided by the virtual fab 300 may enablecollaboration and information access in such areas as design,engineering, and logistics. For example, in the design area, thecustomer 304 may be given access to information and tools related to thedesign of their product via the fab 302. The tools may enable thecustomer 304 to perform yield enhancement analyses, view layoutinformation, and obtain similar information. In the engineering area,the engineer 302 may collaborate with other engineers 302 usingfabrication information regarding pilot yield runs, risk analysis,quality, and reliability. The logistics area may provide the customer304 with fabrication status, testing results, order handling, andshipping dates. It is understood that these areas are exemplary, andthat more or less information may be made available via the virtual fab300 as desired.

Another service provided by the virtual fab 300 may integrate systemsbetween facilities, such as between a facility 304 and the fab facility302. Such integration enables facilities to coordinate their activities.For example, integrating the design facility 304 and the fab facility302 may enable design information to be incorporated more efficientlyinto the fabrication process, and may enable data from the fabricationprocess to be returned to the design facility 304 for evaluation andincorporation into later versions of an IC.

Although only a few example embodiments of this disclosure have beendescribed in detail above, those skilled in the art will readilyappreciate that many modifications are possible in the exampleembodiments. For example, although IP addresses are used as exemplarynetwork identifiers, it is understood that other network identifiers maybe used. In addition, although the server 120 is described as a DNSserver for purposes of example, it is understood that other networkmapping devices and/or protocols may be used. Furthermore, although notshown, other network devices such as routers, proxy servers, etc., maybe used in the information transfer systems described above. Suchdevices may be used in addition to the illustrated components or, insome embodiments, may replace one or more of the illustrated components.Also, each component may include software and/or hardware and may beimplemented differently. Accordingly, all such modifications areintended to be included in the scope of this disclosure as defined inthe following claims. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses areintended to cover the structures described herein as performing therecited function and not only structural equivalents, but alsoequivalent structures.

1. A method for using a plurality of virtual backup service paths todynamically switch between storage devices based on a plurality ofbackup scenarios, the method comprising: defining a plurality of backupservice groups containing at least one client; defining a plurality ofscenarios that each reference at least one virtual backup service path,wherein each virtual backup service path is defined by at least onenetwork address identifying one of the storage devices; determiningwhich scenario of the plurality of scenarios is applicable based on aservice level of the storage devices; and selecting the virtual backupservice path identified by the applicable scenario.
 2. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising storing information from at least one of thebackup service groups using the selected virtual backup service path. 3.The method of claim 1 further comprising assigning a priority level toat least some of the backup service groups, wherein the priority levelis used when determining which scenario is applicable.
 4. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising: assigning a priority level to at least someof the backup service groups; and providing an order in whichinformation from the backup service groups will be stored based on theirpriority level.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the service level ofthe storage devices includes at least one of an availability, acapacity, and a performance of the respective storage device.
 6. Themethod of claim 5 further comprising receiving a notification that thestorage device cannot be used based on the service level of the storagedevice.
 7. A method for dynamically switching to a second storage devicewhen a service level of a first storage device indicates that the firststorage device cannot be used, wherein the first and second storagedevices are identified on a network by first and second networkidentifiers, respectively, the method comprising: receiving a requestfrom a first service group having a backup name, wherein the request isfor a network identifier currently assigned to the backup name;determining whether the first storage device can be used based on theservice level of the first storage device, wherein the first networkidentifier is currently assigned to the backup name; assigning thesecond network identifier to the backup name if the first storage devicecannot be used; and responding to the request with the first networkidentifier if the first network identifier is currently assigned to thebackup name or with the second network identifier if the second networkidentifier is currently assigned to the backup name.
 8. The method ofclaim 7 further comprising assigning a priority level to the firstservice group.
 9. The method of claim 7 further comprising storinginformation from the first service group to the first or second storagedevice associated with the first or second network identifier,respectively, identified in the response to the request.